As Associate Professor in the field of Urban Geography, I am affiliated to the department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. What I love about Urban Geography, is that you can encounter the urban transformations and social challenges you read about in text books and academic papers as soon as you step out into the city. Much of my inspiration for research and teaching comes from such everyday observations, in Amsterdam where I was born and raised, but also in other cities that I have visited over the years.
My research agenda concerns the geography of everyday urban life, oftewel de geleefde stad in Dutch. I explore how residents experience, use and produce urban space, studying the different ways in which neighborhoods form meaningful places for residents (or not) and raising questions about place-based processes of in- and exclusion, feelings of belonging and loss, encounters with difference, and place-making and place-claiming. An important element in my research is how these lived experiences of the city are shaped by - but also contribute to - macro-processes of polarization, segregation and fragmentation of urban space. My fieldwork has often focused on disadvantaged urban areas and urban renewal projects. I am currently working on a new research project on urban marginality and territorial stigmatization.
My teaching responsibilities currently include the Bachelor courses Introduction to Human Geography and Introduction to Urban Geography, and the Master course on Advanced Urban Geographies. I also supervise thesis projects for Bachelor, Master and Research Master students. I am strategically engaged in our academic program as head of the Education Committee (OC) for our bachelor and master programs in Human Geography and Planning.
Homepage of the department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies
Homepage for the Center for Urban Studies
February 2019: CUS seed grant for follow-up research in the Amsterdam Canal Belt
Together with colleague Willem Boterman, I have been awarded a Center for Urban Studies seed grant to continue our research in the Amsterdam Canal Belt. In this study, we will investigate the area's status as an aspirational residential space, questioning how new residents make a place for themselves in this highly dynamic neighborhood that is undergoing both touristification and supergentrification. This study will serve as a 'mirror' for the previous study on how long term residents experience living in the Canal Belt and explore alternative meanings of place.
December 2018: new publication on politics of place in a 'super-diverse' neighbourhood
Myrte Hoekstra and I wrote a paper on the politics of place around a community center in the highly diverse Van der Pek neighborhood in Amsterdam. The paper can be found online as open access article in Social and Cultural Geography.
July 2018: Presenting on territorial stigma at RC21 Toronto
We are presenting our paper on lived experiences of territorial stigmatization at a workshop on Housing Stigma at the ISA RC21 conference in Toronto:
April 2018: Organizing AAG workshop on Geographies of discontent
Together with colleague Myrte Hoekstra, I am organizing three workshop sessions at the AAG 2018 conference on 'Geographies of discontent: loss of place and the emotional ramifications of spatial change'. I am also presenting a paperof my own on territoriality and loss of home.
December 2017: new Dutch publication about residents' sense of place in Amsterdam Bijlmer
Colleagues Marijn Ferier and Myrte Hoekstra, former RMUS student Annefleur Noom and I published a short paper in the Dutch journal Agora on resident experiences of territorial stigmatization in the Bijlmer and how they themselves experience this neighbourhood on the ground. Feel free to contact me for a copy of the paper.
Opleidingscommissie Geografie en Planologie
Ben je geinteresserd in het schrijven van een Bachelor of Master scripie op een stadsgeografisch thema, kijk dan even hieronder naar de lijst met onderwerpen die binnen mijn onderzoeksexpertise vallen.
Are you interested in writing a thesis in the field of Urban Geography, please have a look at the list below of topics I have supervised in the past.
My research interests include a wide range of questions about the meaning of neighborhoods for residents, exploring how residents' everyday routines become embedded in the neighborhood in which they live (or not!); how the neighborhood enables or limits their opportunities to improve their lives, and how - when neighborhood forms a meaningful place to residents - it is then acted upon. I have studied these questions in different types of neighborhoods (from low income neighborhoods to the Amsterdam canal belt) and for different groups of residents, using both qualitative and quantitative methods to provide insight in a variety of themes, including:
- Annalies Teernstra (2009-2014) Processes of neighborhood upgrading and downgrading, copromotor
- Myrte Hoekstra (2013-2017) Governing diversity and experiencing difference, copromotor
- Doske van der Wilk (2014-2017) Gentrifying public space, daily supervisor
- Robin-Jan van Duijne (2017-) Peri-urbanization in India, co-promotor
Urban Studies Blog on the red light district
De moslimwijk bestaat helemaal niet